Baldwin Locomotive Company

Baldwin Locomotive Works

Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875
Industry	Railway
Fate	Bankruptcy
Founded	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. (1825)
Founder	Matthias W. Baldwin
Defunct	1972
Headquarters	Eddystone, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Products	Locomotives

Coordinates: 39°51′33″N 75°19′38″W / 39.85917°N 75.32722°W / 39.85917; -75.32722

The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was originally located in Philadelphia, and later moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as the largest producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the early demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off, Baldwin could not compete in the marketplace. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972, having produced over 70,000 locomotives, the vast majority powered by steam.

This company is not to be confused with E M Baldwin of Australia who made small locomotives for such things as sugar cane tramways.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning. Matthias W. Baldwin, the founder, was a jeweller and whitesmith, who, in 1825, formed a partnership with a machinist, and engaged in the manufacture of bookbinders' tools and cylinders for calico printing. Baldwin then designed and constructed for his own use a small stationary engine, the workmanship of which was so excellent and its efficiency so great that he was solicited to build others like it for various parties, and thus led to turn his attention to steam engineering. The original engine was in use and powered many departments of the works for well over 60 years, and is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.